carolinian showstopping: February 2013

Friday, February 15, 2013

2013 NFL Offseason Team Needs: Kansas City Chiefs

NFL: Indianapolis Colts at Kansas City Chiefs

Dec 23, 2012; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs safety Eric Berry (29) lines up against the Indianapolis Colts in the second half at Arrowhead Stadium. The Colts won the game 20-13. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

What a season it was for the Kansas City Chiefs. They managed to have as many Pro Bowl players as their rival (and division champion) Denver Broncos, yet they finished with the worst record in the NFL.

What gives?

Well, Romeo Crennel is a great defensive coordinator and a terrible head coach, and the Chiefs don?t have a quarterback. Those are two very big problems that can take the most talented team (arguably) in the division and net them the first overall pick in the draft.

The Chiefs, despite their talented roster, still have some glaring needs this offseason. Here they are, in no particular order (with exception to #1).

1. Quarterback

This is a bad year to need a quarterback. The Chiefs aren?t looking at a Luck, Griffin, or maybe even a Wilson with the number one overall pick. If they take a quarterback first overall, it?s likely to be West Virginia?s Geno Smith. I have Smith much more highly rated than others, but the comparisons for Smith range from Tony Romo to Aaron Rodgers (my optimistic comparison). I think Smith has a chance with good coaching to be a stud in the NFL, as he was able to consistently improve upon insane numbers at West Virginia and started for three years. He also is a very good athlete. Still, the Chiefs are talking about potentially acquiring new head coach Andy Reid?s former 2nd round pick Nick Foles, or maybe giving up a mid-round pick for Alex Smith. If they go after one of those two guys, we?ll probably be talking about this as their #1 need again next year. Those are all three the most likely options in my opinion?Geno Smith, Alex Smith, or Nick Foles.

2. Wide Receiver

Dwayne Bowe is extremely inconsistent, and not a good teammate to have obviously. The Chiefs are going to be ridding of that headache this offseason, but Jonathan Baldwin has hardly proven capable of taking over the #1 receiver job in KC. He had just 20 catches last year. Dexter McCluster is a RB/WR hybrid, and I didn?t see enough from anyone else on the roster to believe that this isn?t a top need going into the 2013 season. Despite Bowe?s inconsistencies, he was still the best receiver on the team by far, so this is a position of priority for the Chiefs.

3. Left Tackle

Branden Albert reportedly passed his physical, so he is healthy enough to return. The question is, do the Chiefs feel like filling up HIS wallet, or Luke Joeckel?s? Joeckel, the All-American OT from Texas A&M, is in contention for the top overall pick. If the Chiefs don?t re-sign Albert this offseason, it will be a clear indication of their direction with the #1 overall pick unless they go after a guy like Jake Long.

4. Defensive Line

Glenn Dorsey is a free agent, and Tyson Jackson?s contract will have to be re-structured or he?ll be cut. The Chiefs have some nice young pieces in Dontari Poe and Allen Bailey, but this could quickly become an area of weakness for them. Ropati Pitoitua and Shaun Smith are also free agents this offseason, so it wouldn?t surprise me to see the Chiefs go after a defensive lineman or two in this year?s draft. It?s also a dark horse for the #1 overall pick. They have their nose tackle, but they need to surround him with some more guys. It?s a shame things didn?t work out with Dorsey or Jackson to this point.

5. Inside Linebacker

The Chiefs tragically lost Jovan Belcher late last season, and replacement Brandon Siler is an impending free agent. The Chiefs could potentially find a solid starter in free agency here, but they should look to a young player as well to fill the gap next to Pro Bowler Derrick Johnson.

6. Safety

The Chiefs need another solid starter next to Eric Berry, who is one of the best in the NFL. Kendrick Lewis is a solid backup safety, but there is a need for another starter here. Backups Abram Elam and Travis Daniels are also both free agents.

7. Cornerback

I think Javier Arenas is best suited as a nickel cornerback in the NFL, a role he really excels in. The Chiefs have one of the best corners in the game in Brandon Flowers, but Arenas? starting position could be upgraded. The Chiefs thought they had an answer with Stanford Routt, but he was let go. Flowers was the only cornerback on Kansas City?s roster last year who had an interception, and they finished with only seven as a team.

Source: http://nflmocks.com/2013/02/13/2013-nfl-offseason-team-needs-kansas-city-chiefs/

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Violent exploding stars give birth to cosmic rays

Greg Stewart / SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

An artist's illustration of a supernova explosion, which sends off shock waves that accelerate protons to the point that they become cosmic rays, a process called Fermi acceleration. Many details of Fermi acceleration are unknown, but data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope provide overwhelming evidence that Fermi acceleration is responsible for cosmic rays.

By Charles Q. Choi
Space.com

After a century of mystery, scientists now have the first conclusive evidence that cosmic rays come from the violent aftermaths of exploding stars, researchers say.

Cosmic rays strike Earth from every direction in space with gargantuan amounts of energy, surpassing anything the most powerful atom smashers on Earth can produce. A wide variety of cosmic rays exist, from electrons to massive atomic nuclei to antimatter, but about 90 percent are protons.

Austrian scientist Victor Hess discovered these electrically charged particles from deep space after a high-altitude balloon flight in 1912. However, despite a century of research, the origins of cosmic rays had remained a mystery.

"Cosmic rays are a significant part of the total energy content of our galaxy, but so far we have had no incontrovertible evidence (of) where they come from," said study author Stefan Funk, an astrophysicist at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University.

Cosmic ray mystery
Scientists have long suspected cosmic rays were linked to the aftermaths of supernovas, the most powerful exploding stars in the universe, which are visible at the farthest edges of the cosmos. Researchers speculated that cosmic rays are accelerated gradually and over long periods of time by the shells of gas that supernovas expel, known as supernova remnants.

However, since cosmic rays have electrical charges, they get deflected by any magnetic field they encounter. Since these rays likely careened around before reaching Earth, it's challenging to prove where they were born. [8 Baffling Mysteries of Astronomy]

To help solve the mystery of cosmic ray nurseries, researchers spent four years analyzing gamma rays with the Large Area Telescope onboard NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The scientists focused on two supernova remnants, both located within the Milky Way: IC 433, which is about 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Gemini, and W44, which is about 10,000 light-years away in the constellation Aquila.

NASA / DOE / Fermi LAT Collaboration

In order to understand the origin and acceleration of cosmic ray protons, researchers used data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, and targeted W44 and IC 443, two supernova remnants located thousands of light years away.

"We found, for the first time, sources in the universe that accelerate protons," Funk told Space.com.

Supernova clues
The shockwaves from supernovas?can, in principle, accelerate protons to cosmic ray energies through a process known as Fermi acceleration. In this phenomenon, protons get trapped by magnetic fields in the fast-moving shock waves and accelerated to near the speed of light. Collisions among faster and slower protons can generate subatomic particles called neutral pions, which in turn quickly decay into gamma-ray photons, the most energetic form of light.

Unlike cosmic rays, gamma rays are not affected by magnetic fields, which means they zip out in straight lines and can be traced back to their sources. As such, the researchers looked for these gamma rays as direct evidence of cosmic ray creation.

NASA / DOE / Fermi LAT Collaboration, Chandra X-ray Observatory, ESA; Herschel / XMM-Newton

Finding evidence for the acceleration of protons has long been a key issue in the efforts to explain the origin of cosmic rays. This pair of spectra from two supernova remnants (also shown visibly with data from various satellites and wavelengths) are the "smoking gun" that researchers have been looking for.

The gamma rays from Fermi acceleration come in a distinctive range of energies. The data the scientists gathered from the supernova remnants matched the characteristic energy signature of neutral pion decay, clearly linking supernovas to cosmic rays.

"This is a 100-year-old mystery and being able to see direct evidence of the accelerated protons felt great," Funk said.

"Until now, we had only theoretical calculations and common sense to guide us in the belief that cosmic rays were generated in supernova remnants," said astrophysicist Jerry Ostriker at Columbia University, who was not involved in the study. "The direct detection of pion-decay signatures in supernova remnants closes the loop and provides dramatic observational evidence for a significant component of cosmic rays."

Although this research shows that supernovas can generate cosmic rays, it remains uncertain whether the star explosions cause most cosmic rays, or if there are other potentially more important sources for these particles, Funk said. It is also unclear how exactly supernova remnants accelerate protons, and up to what energies they can speed the particles.

"The acceleration in the shock wave is a rather slow process and happens over the lifetime of the supernova remnants," Funk said. "We would like to understand the efficiency of the acceleration in different evolutionary stages and other details of the process."

In future research, scientists could also hunt for the origins of cosmic rays of even higher energy than these protons. "To do so, one needs to use ground-based telescopes, instruments that use the interaction of gamma rays with the Earth atmosphere, such as HESS or VERITAS or the future Cherenkov Telescope Array," Funk said.

Ultra?high-energy cosmic rays, ones high both in mass and energy, "are extremely rare and therefore one needs huge detection areas," Funk added. "One such installation is the Pierre Auger Array in Argentina, and in the future people are talking about installing an instrument on the International Space Station that would look for interactions in the Earth atmosphere."

The scientists will detail their findings in Friday's issue of the journal Science, as well as at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston Thursday.

Follow Space.com on Twitter?@Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook? and?Google+.?

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/14/16964762-violent-exploding-stars-give-birth-to-cosmic-rays?lite

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Thursday, February 14, 2013

Being There: Scientists Enlist Inuit for Long-Term Observations of Arctic Wildlife [Slide Show]

During the summer in Qaanaaq, Greenland, an Inuit hunter paddling next to a resting narwhal observed a thin gauzelike layer coming off the narwhal's body and dissipating into the water. The event lasted only a few seconds, but Connecticut-based dentist Martin Nweeia, a Harvard University and Smithsonian Institution researcher who studies narwhal tusks as his passion, immediately saw the scientific significance of the hunter's observation. Whereas the beluga, the narwhal's nearest relative, is known to enter warmer estuarine waters in the summer to molt, this skin-renewal process had never been scientifically documented for narwhal, in part because no scientist has ever spent sufficient time in remote Arctic locations to record such an event. "One voice from an Inuit hunter can be more significant than 100 scientists," says Nweeia, who presented his findings at the 18th Inuit Studies Conference in Washington, D.C. Nweeia, a professor at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, has obtained many more scientific insights from the Inuit elders and hunters who have lived close to the narwhal for thousands of years. Taking a cue from the Inuit who indicated that narwhal tusking was not a sign of aggression, he discovered that the unicornlike tusk was a sensory organ, capable of detecting changes in the ocean environment. Narwhals gently rubbing their tusks together are not dueling, as previously believed, but engaged in a type of ritualistic behavior, Nweeia argues. He also learned that the tusk could bend at least 30 centimeters in any direction without breaking, an observation that he did not believe until more scientific tests demonstrated the tusk?s unusual strength and flexibility. View a slide show of scientific collaboration around narwhals. More scientists now collaborate with indigenous peoples to learn about rare and elusive wildlife. ?The biologists are starting to understand that hunters have good eyes, they know what they are looking for, and it can really help them,? says Gabriel Nirlungayuk, director of wildlife and environment for Nunavut Tunngavik, Inc. Nirlungayuk has collaborated with scientists on different research projects. Reliance on aboriginal insights is particularly crucial in the Arctic, where climate change creates an urgent need to understand local dynamics. ?The Arctic is changing rapidly, and often it is just too fast for scientists to keep up with all the details or implications,? says Henry Huntington, science director for the Arctic program at the Pew Environment Group in Alaska. Changing environmental conditions open unprecedented opportunities for industrial development that has the potential to compromise wildlife habitat. In Nunavut one of the biggest resource extraction efforts ever proposed for the eastern Arctic, the Mary River iron ore project, could have impacts on various species including caribou, bowhead whale, narwhal, beluga and walrus. Scientists and locals combine forces to tackle those major conservation issues. ?We have to try our best to work together in a cooperative way so that we all know as much as we can about how fragile these populations can be,? says Jack Orr, project lead for the Arctic Research Division at Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Orr captures narwhals and fits them with satellite transmitters to understand the whales' diving behaviors and migration routes. Inuit hunters provide information about weather conditions, best timing and locations for accessing the whales. Local Arctic residents are traveling, hunting, boating and observing wildlife on the land and ocean throughout the year whereas scientists only conduct field studies for a limited time during the summer. ?We might get a piece of the puzzle, but we are never going to see the puzzle,? Nweeia says. For example, in Barrow, Alaska, Saint Lawrence Island Yupik whalers helped improve census methods for bowhead whales, telling scientists they could not see all the whales from the edge of the ice, along with sharing insights on bowheads? ability to swim through the ice where they cannot be seen. Biologists also built on I?upiaq observations to learn that bowheads possess a sense of smell, unlike most other whales. In contrast to scientists who seek to isolate and study one variable in the environment, traditional knowledge?holders look for relationships within the whole environment, which helps science explore new territory. Huntington learned from I?upiaq and Yupik elders that beavers damned streams where fish spawned, hence impacting belugas? food source in Alaska. ?I have yet to meet a biologist telling me with a straight face that he would have anticipated a connection between beavers and beluga,? he says. Scientific research in remote Arctic regions is expensive and logistically challenging, particularly for species like orcas ( killer whales) that cover large areas and cannot be easily surveyed through standard methods. Climate change and the resulting loss of sea ice during the summer have opened new hunting territory for the killer whales in the eastern Canadian Arctic, but scientists knew very little about these animals until they tapped into the traditional knowledge of Inuit hunters who shared unique firsthand descriptions of orca hunting tactics. ?It gives us a real jump start in knowing what to be looking for,? says Steve Ferguson, a research scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada who led a survey of traditional knowledge on killer whales in Nunavut waters. Learning from Inuit hunters that killer whales use specific methods to hunt bowheads, beluga, narwhal and seals, Ferguson discovered at least two different killer whale groups based on prey preferences. Sometimes the locals share qualitative, subtle information that challenges scientific minds. Orr recalls that an Inuit hunter once told him that narwhals get cold when holes are made through their backs to fit satellite tags. ?I may not necessarily believe that, but I can?t say he is wrong, either,? Orr says. He since then improved the tag design to minimize impacts on the whales. When Nweeia learned about narwhal molting for the first time, he knew that he had to part with the traditional scientific approach that validates facts through large sample sizes. ?These hunters spent their whole lives around narwhal, and the reason why their knowledge is valid and should not be questioned as much is because their lives depend on it.? Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
? 2013 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/being-scientists-enlist-inuit-long-term-observations-arctic-203100862.html

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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Cylance, A Cyber Security Data Company Founded By Former McAfee CTO, Raises $15M From Khosla, Fairhaven Capital

Cylance,a cyber security company founded by former Global McAfee CTO Stuart McClure, has raised $15 million in a round led by Khosla Ventures and Fairhaven Capital. Cylance uses data to help keep core systems healthy.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/e6k-DHSeB2c/

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Belmont tightens police chase policy after former mayor dies in wreck

by STUART WATSON / NBC Charlotte

Bio | Email | Follow: @whatnowCLT

WCNC.com

Posted on February 11, 2013 at 11:43 PM

Updated yesterday at 12:00 AM

BELMONT, N.C. -- A year after a high-speed police chase ended with the death of its former mayor and the daughter of a long-time councilman, Belmont has tightened its police chase policy to direct officers to chase only in the event of a suspected felony or dangerous crime.

But Police Chief Charlie Franklin told a Public Safety Committee that chases will still depend largely on officers ?split second? judgment based on the ?totality of the circumstances.?

(Read the updated chase policy here.)

The changes did not satisfy Ellen Deitz Tucker, whose sister Donna Deitz died in the crash.

?I?m not confident officers are getting adequate training that allows them to make good decisions in the moment,? Ms. Tucker said Monday night.
?
Former Belmont Mayor Kevin Loftin and his friend, Dietz, were driving home from Ash Wednesday services February 22, 2012 when a black Acura SUV driven by Lester S. Norman, Jr. ran a red light at Park Street and U.S. Highway 74, hitting them broadside at 80 miles an hour.

Norman was on federal probation and later said he ran from a Belmont Police checkpoint on the entrance ramp to Interstate 85 because he didn?t want to go back to prison.
?
Belmont police charged Norman with trying to run down Officer Kevin Wingate at the traffic stop and said the officers did nothing wrong in chasing him up I-85 northbound and onto Exit 27.

Chief Franklin told the Public Safety Committee Monday night that police are ?between a rock and a hard place? and would be second guessed whether they chased suspects or broke off the chase.

Councilman Charlie Flowers, himself a former Belmont Police Chief, backed up Franklin.

?The police department's not on trial here,? he said to the public audience, with Donna Deitz? sister and brother in the front row. ?Our policy is not on trial here. We're trying to do the best we can.?

Chief Franklin said he had reviewed police pursuit policies at law enforcement agencies in Gaston County but also at selected cities, including Charlotte, Milwaukee and Orlando.

Chief Franklin asked council members to review the policy and give him written feedback by Friday. The Chief said he expected to put the new chase policy into effect starting March 1.

Ms. Tucker said her family would continue to press the city of Belmont for a detailed public review of the pursuit that ended with her sister?s death. She questioned the need to put the new policy into effect in just a few weeks.

The policy is not a law or even a rule and contains no provisions for disciplinary action in the event that Belmont officers do not abide by it.

Source: http://www.wcnc.com/mobile-content/local-news/Belmont-tightens-police-chase-policy-after-former-mayor-dies-in-wreck-190779141.html

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Carnival cancels 12 more cruises on troubled ship

In this image released by the U.S. Coast Guard on Feb. 11, 2013, a small boat belonging to the Coast Guard Cutter Vigorous patrols near the cruise ship Carnival Triumph in the Gulf of Mexico, Feb. 11, 2013. The Carnival Triumph has been floating aimlessly about 150 miles off the Yucatan Peninsula since a fire erupted in the aft engine room early Sunday, knocking out the ship's propulsion system. No one was injured and the fire was extinguished. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard- Lt. Cmdr. Paul McConnell)

In this image released by the U.S. Coast Guard on Feb. 11, 2013, the Coast Guard Cutter Vigorous patrols near the cruise ship Carnival Triumph in the Gulf of Mexico, Feb. 11, 2013. The Carnival Triumph has been floating aimlessly about 150 miles off the Yucatan Peninsula since a fire erupted in the aft engine room early Sunday, knocking out the ship's propulsion system. No one was injured and the fire was extinguished. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard- Lt. Cmdr. Paul McConnell)

In a Feb. 12, 2013 photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, the tugs Resolve Pioneer and Dabhol, left, tow and steer the 893-foot Carnival Triumph cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico. The ship is enroute to Mobile, Ala., after an engine room fire on Sunday, Feb. 10 left the ship powerless. Carnival Cruise Lines on Wednesday canceled voyages through April on the Triumph, a ship that has been plagued by mechanical problems .The ship has more than 4,000 people on board, some of whom have told relatives conditions on board the ship are dismal, and they have limited access to food and bathrooms. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard, Ensign Chris Shivock)

Map locates position of disabled cruise ship

HOUSTON (AP) ? Carnival Cruise Lines has canceled a dozen more planned voyages aboard the Triumph and acknowledged that the crippled ship had been plagued by other mechanical problems in the weeks before an engine-room fire left it powerless in the Gulf of Mexico.

The company's announcement on Wednesday came as the Triumph was being towed to a port in Mobile, Ala., with more than 4,000 people on board, some of whom have complained to relatives that conditions on the ship are dismal and that they have limited access to food and bathrooms.

The ship will be idle through April. Two other cruises were called off shortly after Sunday's fire.

Debbi Smedley, a passenger on a recent Triumph cruise, said the ship had trouble on Jan. 28 as it was preparing to leave Galveston. Hours before the scheduled departure time, she received an email from Carnival stating the vessel would leave late because of a propulsion problem. Passengers were asked to arrive at the port at 2 p.m., two hours later than originally scheduled.

The ship did not sail until after 8 p.m., she said.

"My mother is a cruise travel agent so this is not my first rodeo. I have sailed many, many cruises, many, many cruise lines. This was, by far, I have to say, the worst," said Smedley, of Plano, Texas.

After losing power on its most recent journey, the ship drifted until Tuesday, when two tugboats began moving it toward shore. A third tugboat was enroute Wednesday from Louisiana.

The National Transportation Safety Board has opened an investigation into the fire.

Passengers have had limited cellphone service because of the power failure, but many were able to make calls to friends and family when the Triumph rendezvoused with another Carnival ship that dropped off food and supplies. The other ship had a working cellular antenna.

Robert Giordano, of the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond, said he last spoke to his wife, Shannon, on Monday. She told him she waited in line for three hours to get a hot dog, and that conditions on the ship were terrible.

"They're having to urinate in the shower. They've been passed out plastic bags to go to the bathroom," Giordano said. "There was fecal matter all over the floor."

Even more distressing, Giordano said, has been the lack of information he has been able to get from Carnival, a complaint shared by Vivian Tilley, of San Diego, whose sister is also on the vessel.

Carnival, she said, has not told families what hotel passengers will be put in or provided precise information about when they will arrive in Mobile, Ala. And that came after the cruise line switched the ship's towing destination from Progreso, Mexico, to Mobile.

Tilley said her sister, Renee Shanar, of Houston, told her the cabins were hot and smelled like smoke from the engine fire, forcing passengers to stay on the deck. She also said people were getting sick.

"It's a nightmare," Tilley said, noting Shanar and her husband chose a four-day cruise so they wouldn't be away from their two daughters for too long.

Meanwhile, officials in Mobile are preparing a cruise terminal that has not been used for a year to help passengers go through customs after their ordeal.

The Triumph is expected to arrive Thursday afternoon.

The cruise ship company has chartered 15 buses to haul passengers to hotels in New Orleans, said Barbara Drummond, a spokeswoman for the city of Mobile.

Carnival said passengers would also be able to fly home on chartered flights.

The company has disputed the accounts of passengers who describe the ship as filthy, saying employees are doing everything to ensure people are comfortable.

Passengers are supposed to receive a full refund and discounts on future cruises.

Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen acknowledged the Triumph's recent mechanical woes, explaining that there was an electrical problem with the ship's alternator on the previous voyage. Repairs were completed Feb. 2.

Testing of the repaired part was successful and "there is no evidence at this time of any relationship between this previous issue and the fire that occurred on Feb. 10."

But according to the email sent to passengers on Jan. 28, the issue affected the ship's cruising speeds, delaying its arrival in Galveston. The email also informed Smedley and other passengers that the propulsion problem would prevent them from docking at two ports.

"Due to the limited cruising speed, our itinerary will be impacted. Depending on the progress of the repairs, we will either visit Progreso or Cozumel," stated the email, signed by Vicky Rey, vice president of guest services. "The good news is that we will remain docked overnight at either port."

Smedley said the ship was in poor condition overall. During her five-day cruise, a water line broke in the hallway ceiling near her cabin, and a separate sewer line broke outside the main dining hall, she said. Metal was protruding from handrails on the staircases, and the elevators often did not work.

Rather than docking in Progreso for only a few hours as planned, the ship stayed in the port for two days, and cruise workers repeatedly told passengers they were waiting for parts to fix a mechanical problem, she said.

Jay Herring, a former senior officer with Carnival Cruise Lines who worked on the Triumph from 2002 to 2004, said the ship was not problematic when he was on it. But he had been on another vessel that seemed to have trouble on nearly every voyage. The Holiday, which at that time was the oldest ship in Carnival's fleet, has since been sold to another company, he said.

"It seemed like it had problems every cruise or every couple of cruises," said Herring, who also authored the book "The Truth About Cruise Ships." ''So it may not be unusual to have recurring problems."

The Triumph, he said, is the size of three football fields or a skyscraper laid on its side. It takes five generators ? with one on backup ? to power the ship, and 80 percent of that energy is needed to simply push the massive vessel through the water, Herring said.

Each of those generators is the size of a bus, so it's unrealistic to think that the ship could have enough backup power on board to run services when the engines die, Herring added.

"It's one of their bigger ships. It's certainly on the top end of Carnival's fleet," he said of the Triumph. "There are so many moving parts and things that can go wrong."

___

Associated Press writer Bob Johnson contributed to this report from Montgomery, Ala.

___

Plushnick-Masti can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RamitMastiAP .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-13-Disabled%20Cruise%20Ship/id-172fcb6ec3be41feb28d5020f8f3c7b7

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India Japan can partner using their expertise in software and hardware Sibal

Australian News.Net - Wednesday 13th February, 2013

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Panetta calls North Korea nuke test serious threat to US

Australian News.Net - Wednesday 13th February, 2013

Outgoing Pentagon chief Leon Panetta has said that North Korean military ambitions are a 'serious threat' to the US. Panetta likened the North to Iran, describing them as "rogue states". In a ...